Balalaika Player (1925): Art, History and Details

Balalaika Player (1925) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Alexander Blazys (American, born Russian Empire [now Lithuania], 1894–1963).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A Lithuanian immigrant, Alexander Blazys introduced modernist sculpture to Cleveland upon his arrival in 1925. In this composition, the distinctive triangular shape of the balalaika instrument is mirrored in the pose of the player's legs.

Object facts

• Title: Balalaika Player
• Date: 1925
• Creator attribution: Alexander Blazys (American, born Russian Empire [now Lithuania], 1894–1963)
• Culture: America, Ohio, Cleveland
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 31.2 x 19.8 x 9.3 cm (12 5/16 x 7 13/16 x 3 11/16 in.)
• Collection: American - Sculpture
• Department: American Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1926.1548

A detail from the museum

Balalaikas are made in six primary sizes.

Collection credit

Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Alexander Blazys Entry Card to 1926 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Hoffman, Jay, Dee Driscole, and Mary Clare Zahler. A Study in Regional Taste: The May Show, 1919-1975. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1977.
• Robinson, William H., et. al. Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.